Students will:

• Examine the concept of identity.
• Develop class norms and goals  for themselves and the class.

Students will consider:

• How do our identities impact the way we understand the world around us and the experiences of others?
• In what way have  environmental factors (systems, structures, institutions etc.) shaped our identities and beliefs?
• How can I, as a student, use an understanding of identity  to inform my work in this class?

Students will demonstrate skills for historical thinking, geographical analysis, economic decision making, and responsible citizenship by:

• Synthesizing evidence from artifacts and primary and secondary sources to obtain information about events in Virginia and United States history.
• Using geographic information to determine patterns and trends in Virginia and United States history.
• Interpreting charts, graphs, and pictures to determine characteristics of people, places, or events in Virginia and United States history.
• Constructing arguments, using evidence from multiple sources.
• Comparing and contrasting historical, cultural, economic, and political perspectives in Virginia and United States history.
• Explaining how indirect cause-and-effect relationships impact people, places, and events in Virginia and United States history.
• Analyzing multiple connections across time and place.
• Using a decision-making model to analyze and explain the incentives for and consequences of a specific choice made.
• Identifying the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and ethical use of material and intellectual property.
• Investigating and researching to develop products orally and in writing.

Students will consider:

• Whose voices are emphasized, marginalized, and silenced in social studies courses?
• Which perspectives (political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, global, military) are emphasized, marginalized, and silenced in social studies courses?
• How does shifting between scales of study (macro to micro) impact your thinking and learning and make the past usable?
• What are the benefits of using inquiry, comparison, and connections to construct my knowledge of the world?
• How does learning about history impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to:

• Understand the impact of the Age of Exploration by:
  • Describing the characteristics of early exploration and evaluating the impact of European settlement in the Americas.
  • Analyzing the cultural interactions among American Indians, Europeans, and Africans.
• Understand early European colonization by:
  • Evaluating the economic characteristics of the colonies.
  • Analyzing how social and political factors impacted the culture of the colonies.
  • Explaining the impact of the development of indentured servitude and slavery in the colonies.

Students will consider:

• What is the danger of a single story?
• How do differences in power and privilege influence the relationships we have with each other?
• How has the interpretation of history changed?
• How does learning about settlement and colonization impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to:

• Understand the issues and events leading to and during the Revolutionary Period by:
  • Describing the results of the French and Indian War.
  • Evaluating how political ideas of the Enlightenment helped shape American politics.
  • Explaining how conflicting loyalties created political differences among the colonists concerning separation from Great Britain.
  • Analyzing the competing factors that led to colonial victory in the Revolutionary War.
  • Evaluating how key principles in the Declaration of Independence grew in importance to become unifying ideas of American political philosophy.
• Understand the development of the American political system by:
  • Examining founding documents to explore the development of American constitutional government, with emphasis on the significance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in the framing of the Bill of Rights.
  • Describing the major compromises necessary to produce the Constitution of the United States, with emphasis on the roles of James Madison and George Washington.
  • Assessing the arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the ratification debates in defense of the principles and issues that led to the development of political parties.
  • Evaluating the impact of John Marshall’s precedent-setting decisions that established the Supreme Court as an independent and equal branch of the national government.

Students will consider:

• How do governments balance competing interests?
• Is there a price to obtaining freedom from oppression? If so, what is it?
• How should governments balance the rights of individuals with the common good?
• How does learning about the American Revolution and New Nation impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand major events in Virginia and United States history during the first half of the nineteenth century by:

• Explaining territorial expansion and its impact on the American Indians.
• Describing the political results of territorial expansion.
• Assessing the political and economic changes that occurred during this period, with emphasis on James Madison and the War of 1812.
• Analyzing the social and cultural changes during the period, with emphasis on “the age of the common man” (Jacksonian Era).
• Evaluating the cultural, economic, and political issues that divided the nation, including tariffs, slavery, the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements, and the role of the states in the Union.
• Explaining how Manifest Destiny and President James K. Polk’s policies impacted the nation.
• Evaluating and explaining the multiple causes and compromises leading to the Civil War, including the role of the institution of slavery.

Students will consider:

• How do competing interests influence how power is distributed and exercised?
• How do maps and globes reflect history, politics, and economics?
• What are the causes and consequences of injustice?

Students will apply social science skills to understand the Civil War and Reconstruction eras and their significance as major turning points in American history by:

• Describing major events and the roles of key leaders of the Civil War era, with emphasis on Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglass.
• Evaluating and explaining the significance and development of Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and political statements, including the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the principles outlined in the Gettysburg Address.
• Evaluating and explaining the impact of the war on Americans, with emphasis on Virginians, African Americans, the common soldier, and the home front.
• Evaluating postwar Reconstruction plans presented by key leaders of the Civil War.
• Evaluating and explaining the political and economic impact of the war and Reconstruction, including the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Students will consider:

• How does the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction impact our national identity and unity today?
• How does the past impact present understanding, systems, and actions regarding prejudice and social bias?
• How does learning about the US Civil War and Reconstruction impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand how the nation grew and changed from the end of Reconstruction through the early twentieth century by:

• Explaining the westward movement of the population in the United States, with emphasis on the role of the railroads, communication systems, admission of new states to the Union, and the impact on American Indians.
• Analyzing the factors that transformed the American economy from agrarian to industrial and explaining how major inventions transformed life in the United States, including the emergence of leisure activities.
• Examining the contributions of new immigrants and evaluating the challenges they faced, including anti-immigration legislation.
• Analyzing the impact of prejudice and discrimination, including “Jim Crow” laws, the responses of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and the practice of eugenics in Virginia.
• Evaluating and explaining the social and cultural impact of industrialization, including rapid urbanization.
• Evaluating and explaining the economic outcomes and the political, cultural and social developments of the Progressive Movement and the impact of its legislation.

Students will consider:

• How do power and privilege impact social reform? 
• How do societies change and who benefits from these changes?
• How does economic activity and issues impact other parts or aspects of society?
• How does learning about industrialization and immigration  impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand the emerging role of the United States in world affairs during the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by:

• Explaining changes in foreign policy of the United States toward Latin America and Asia and the growing influence of the United States, with emphasis on the impact of the Spanish-American War.
• Evaluating the United States’ involvement in World War I, including Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
• Evaluating and explaining the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, with emphasis on the national debate in response to the League of Nations.

Students will consider:

• How is power gained, used, and justified?
• When should a country go to war and who benefits from going to war?
• To what extent does the US empire impact systemic racism, bias, and national identity?
• How does learning about US Overseas Imperialism and World War 1 impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand key events during the 1920s and 1930s by:

• Analyzing how popular culture evolved and challenged traditional values.
• Assessing and explaining the economic causes and consequences of the stock market crash of 1929.
• Explaining the causes of the Great Depression and its impact on the American people.
• Evaluating and explaining how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal measures addressed the Great Depression and expanded the government’s role in the economy.

Students will consider:

• To what extent was the New Deal an effective response to the Great Depression?
• Who benefitted from the  New Deal in the 1930s and who didn't benefit?
• How has the New Deal impacted US society over time?
• How does learning about the Great Depression and New Deal impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand World War II by:

• Analyzing the causes and events that led to American involvement in the war, including the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the American response.
• Describing and locating the major battles and key leaders of the European theater.
• Describing and locating the major battles and key leaders of the Pacific theater.
• Evaluating and explaining how the United States mobilized its economic and military resources, including the role of all-minority military units (the Tuskegee Airmen and Nisei regiments) and the contributions of media, minorities, and women to the war effort.
• Analyzing the Holocaust (Hitler’s “final solution”), its impact on Jews and other groups, and the postwar trials of war criminals.
• Evaluating and explaining the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians by the Allied and Axis powers.

Students will consider:

• How are freedom and democracy threatened during times of war?
• How important was the homefront in the United States’ victory in World War II?
• What social, political, cultural, or economic aspects of the US were changed the most by World War II?
• How does learning about World War 2 impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences,  a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand the United States’ foreign policy during the Cold War era by:

• Locating and explaining the political boundary changes, and the formation of the United Nations and the Marshall Plan.
• Explaining the origins and early development of the Cold War and how it changed American foreign policy, with emphasis on the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment of communism.
• Analyzing the efforts of the United States to protect Western Europe, including the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• Analyzing the changing role of the United States in Asia, including Korea, Vietnam, and China.
• Evaluating and explaining how policy changes impacted the United States’ relationships in Latin America.
• Analyzing the domestic impact of the Cold War.
• Evaluating and explaining the factors that caused the collapse of communism in Europe and how it changed American foreign policy, including the role of Ronald Reagan.

Students will consider:

• To what extent does international conflict bring peace, progress, and prosperity to the world?
• Does the United States have a mission to expand freedom and democracy?
• Is being a socialist or communist bad?
• How does learning about The Cold War impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand the social, political, and cultural movements and changes in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century by:

• Explaining the factors that led to United States expansion.
• Evaluating and explaining the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the roles of Thurgood Marshall and Oliver W. Hill, Sr., and how Virginia responded to the decision.
• Explaining how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the 1963 March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) had an impact on all Americans.
• Analyzing changes in immigration policy and the impact of increased immigration.
• Evaluating and explaining the foreign and domestic policies pursued by the American government after the Cold War.
• Explaining how scientific and technological advances altered American lives.
• Evaluating and explaining the changes that occurred in American culture.

Students will consider:

• How can I impact social change?
• What are the benefits and consequences of questioning/challenging authority?
• How does the study of history help us realize that ideas and actions of individuals and groups have consequences and shape events?
• How does learning about Civil Rights and American identity impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Students will apply social science skills to understand political and social conditions in the United States during the early twenty-first century by:

• Assessing the development of and changes in domestic policies, with emphasis on the impact of the role the United States Supreme Court played in defining a constitutional right to privacy, affirming equal rights, and upholding the rule of law.
• Evaluating and explaining the changes in foreign policies and the role of the United States in a world confronted by international terrorism, with emphasis on the American response to 9/11 (September 11, 2001).
• Evaluating the evolving and changing role of government, including its role in the American  economy.
• Explaining scientific and technological changes and evaluating their impact on American culture.

Students will consider:

• In what ways has globalization been impacted by and has impacted the United States?
• Explain how political, social, economic, cultural, technological, environmental, and global topics in the 21st century impacted the world, the Americas, the United States, Virginia, your community, and you?
• What people, groups, ideas, events, systems, and things in the 21st Century have had the most significant impact on the world, the Americas, the United States, Virginia, your community, and you?
• How does learning about the US in the 21st Century impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Objectives and descriptive statements can be found on the 11th grade Family Life Education (FLE) page.